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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28193496">Okay, Then</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cher/pseuds/cher'>cher</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Wicked + The Divine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cameron Lives, Gen, POV First Person, Post Issue 44, Rescue from the Underworld, That Period When Everyone Was in Prison</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:28:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28193496</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cher/pseuds/cher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Underworld gods should stick together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Baphomet &amp; Laura Wilson | Persephone, Pre Baphomet/Dionysus, Pre Cassandra Igarashi | Urdr/Laura Wilson | Persephone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Yuletide 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Okay, Then</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria/gifts">Aria</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If there was one thing you could say about prison, it was that it gave us a lot of time to relearn our miracles. Carefully, of course. The system isn't set up for people like us, and they're jumpy. No one really knows what we can still do. Especially us. </p><p>Don't worry. This isn't a prison story, not really. Let's just say the attention paid to the pantheon by the public did not diminish one bit after our trials, and it kept real prison life away from us. At first they didn't want us housed together, but in pretty short order they threw up their collective arms and sent us all to—alright, it was sort of cool, Luci loved it—Alcatraz. It had to be hastily converted from its mothballed state, but once they transferred us they didn’t have to deal with crowds outside every facility one of us was in anymore. Just the occasional boat, and a whole bucket load of drones. That was okay; Jon could practice his miracles on them. </p><p>Umar—Dio—could still do something like the old hive-mind so we could talk even when we were separated. Cass never stopped using her journalistic skills, or her information miracles; she could tell us anything we needed to know, most of the time. And Aruna—Tara—was still out there in the world, keeping our story alive. Our real story, not the one Ananke sold the world. She was inoculating people against the Recurrence, maybe, just in case it did happen again. Maybe, between her efforts and the public pressure, we’d all be out soon, able to do some more good with what miracles we could still do. There’d been some talk of commuting our sentences, doing some kind of community service deal instead so as not to waste potential miracles. </p><p>You might think we all deserved to be in here, and maybe you’d be right. But the kind of people who say ‘yes, sign me up’ when an old lady offers them fame and death are not the kind of people who are content with what they have, so sure, we were trying all avenues. And like I said, Alcatraz really helped with the story we could weave. </p><p>Moving us was maybe even something Cass made happen, putting information in front of the right people. Maybe she knew what I wanted to do; it wouldn’t be the first time. I didn’t ask. The history in the place made the plan I’d been so quiet about a whole lot easier, and I was just waiting for the season to roll around. </p><p>Having a sub clause in your god-contract about free travel in the months of winter doesn't go away after you resign. </p><p>So that's what I did, the first day the wind in my cell started to really bite—Alcatraz has never been known for its comforts—I closed my eyes and stepped down into the shadows. </p><p>_</p><p>If we’re being technical I should just drop into my own Underworld, Hades, which doesn’t have much in common with Cam’s underworld or Luci’s either. But the way our particular pantheon’s stories worked out had woven them all together, one big underworld containing multitudes. I guess we had our own regions or we couldn’t all have been kings and queens of hells, underworlds, death, etc, but I wasn’t asking questions in case it all fell down on top of me. </p><p>The place was creepy as fuck, but my bar was set so high by now that stepping over the bones and dodging the ghosts only registered because it was a change from my cell. The noise was the worst. Moaning and sighing, all the different languages of the world and all its history. </p><p>I listened hard anyway. I wanted to hear the one song that was really going to call to me here. And I wasn’t the part-time Queen of the Underworld for nothing, so shit got out of my way. </p><p>It was a long journey, and also a short one, the way all journeys in the Underworld are. I don’t think about it; thinking is the fastest way to get lost down here. You have to hold your purpose and keep pushing forward no matter what your own damage manages to call out of the ether just so it can fuck with your progress. This time I had a lock on my purpose so I bulled through. </p><p>I found him on a throne of skull and bone, because of course I did. He died as Baphomet, or maybe Nergal, who knows what his story did to him, or he did to his story. Lounging, all long legs, black and silver all over. Gorgeous and tragic. Entirely my type, entirely a bad idea, but who’s judging? Not me, not now. </p><p>He was looking out over his kingdom, pulling illusions out of the shadows and watching them spin. If only my phone had made it through with me, this photo would have made a great album cover for any metal band you care to name. </p><p>I stepped into his line of sight. “Where’s your harem of demon ladies?” </p><p>He tried very hard to keep up his air of cool and menace, but the geek will out, especially when he’s been alone for months. He jumped straight out of his throne and was instantly looming over me. He smelled of leather and dust, just close though to his real, living scent it kicked me in the guts a bit. </p><p>His fangs flashed when he grinned, and he grabbed my shoulders. “Demon ladies won’t dance with me. But you will. What are you doing here? Did we win?”</p><p>I winced. “Well, Minerva is dead, Baal is also dead, the Recurrence is dead or at least this one is, everyone else except Tara is locked up in Alcatraz and no one is a god. So it’s a qualified yes?”</p><p>His mouth set. “Dio?”</p><p>“You saved him, Cameron. You gave him your life, but it doesn’t have to be forever. We can get you out.” </p><p>He raked his fingers through his hair. “Out so I can go to prison? Die again? Do you have a better offer?” </p><p>“I guess you can stay here with your harem, keep on being a dead god of a dead world, but we’d really like you back, Cam. Our pun game is suffering.” </p><p>He blinked and his lips twisted, trying to hide a bit of a tear in his eye. I let him think I hadn’t seen. Guess he didn’t think anyone would miss him. I understand the feeling, which is why I had to get him out. </p><p>“Guess I can’t leave you punderstaffed. How are you going to get me out? I’ve tried and all I get is lost.” </p><p>I took a moment to study him, his weird coloured eyes, his damn great eyebrow game. He was a dick, but he was also a friend. We got each other, and it was so good to see him. I grinned, shut my eyes and called out for Dio. It was harder from down here, but I could do it. Sometimes, it’s still good to be Queen.</p><p>Dio homed in on me and phased in, pink and gold light and such a massive grin I nearly sprained something with the size of the smile I answered it with. He shouted and grabbed Cam immediately. It looked like a really great hug. Cam looked kind of overwhelmed. I guess you would be if you’d been alone in the dark for months and then got hit with Umar on full beam. </p><p>“Come on,” Dio said, “I’m taking you home.”</p><p>Cam looked at me, all eyebrow. “Dionysus comes with a “get someone out of the underworld free” card,” I explained. “Or at least, he does if he can make his way through the underworld with nothing eating him. Fortunately he has me, and so … here we are. We can get you out, but there’s something you have to understand first, before you agree.”</p><p>“Here,” Dio said, reaching for Cam’s temples. “I’ll show you how we won.”</p><p>I left them to it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to help Cam with this part. Of us all, he loved his time as a god the hardest, the most, even if he also resented it more than anyone. I thought he was going to take a while to give it up, but I was wrong. Turns out, there’s nothing like being bored stiff on a skull throne to force you to deal with your own shit. </p><p>We went home, if home was a cold cell on an island of legend. Cam could share my cell, at least until the next of the warden’s rounds. Then we’d have some fun. </p><p>_</p><p>As it turned out, the miracle that Cam hung onto was his shadow walking. We all seemed to get one thing that still came easy to us, even if it was only turned up to like, three, rather than our old eleven. </p><p>That was fine. He had his own trial, and the renewed publicity fired everything right back up again. The fact that there’d been an actual resurrection just to put Cam on the stand did nothing to settle down public interest, so no one thought it would be long before we could stop calling Alcatraz home. </p><p>Meanwhile, Cam could walk between cells just fine. He spent most of his time with Umar, and I think they were good for each other. I was glad; Cam was going to need someone looking out for him when things changed for us again, or he was going to go right back to having his own little cult of goth ravers. He might have found his own better self, but he was still Baph somewhere in there. </p><p>The really great thing was, I think he was starting to appreciate that. </p><p>And me? I took shameless advantage of Cam’s gratitude and I tagged along on his shadow hops, but I found I was spending more and more time with Cass. That was something I was learning to appreciate too. </p><p>We had a lot of work ahead of us, but at least now it’d come with a pun. Everything was just a bit closer to being okay. </p>
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